1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the design of interactive graphics and video systems. More specifically, the present invention pertains to a system and method for authoring and testing 3-D content based on broadcast triggers using a standard VRML authoring tool.
2. Related Art
Traditional television broadcast has been a one-way communication channel. Until recently, virtually all available broadcast content is authored, edited and composited at the head end by content providers (who can either be the broadcasters or separate entities) such that all viewers have an identical view. Moreover, traditional televisions and other broadcast receivers typically do not have three-dimensional (3-D) graphics capability (e.g., specialized hardware and/or software) built into them. Thus, even though the notion of interactive television has been in existence for some time, due to bandwidth limitations, the lack of 3-D graphics processing support and other reasons, interactive media content with 3-D graphics is not feasible or practicable in the traditional television broadcast paradigm.
The advent of digital television (DTV) technology has enabled the development of interactive content and its delivery to the viewers""homes. Generally, digital broadcast can be characterized as a high-speed data pipe into the home, providing dramatic bandwidth improvements over traditional broadcast for content delivery. Thus, once the digital broadcast infrastructure has been deployed, new types of applications, new kinds of services and new forms of entertainment become feasible. For example, this broadcast data pipe allows numerous forms of xe2x80x9cenhanced televisionxe2x80x9d programming (e.g., TV programs with accompanying data, such as game scores and statistics in a sports program) to be delivered to viewers at home, who enjoy wide latitudes to choose when and how to view the additional information. In addition, unlike traditional televisions and other broadcast receivers, industry-standard DTV receivers can be built to support local 3-D graphics acceleration. Therefore, it is also possible to develop sophisticated applications that use the high speed broadcast data pipe to incorporate interactive 3-D graphics into digital broadcast content to greatly enrich the viewers""experience.
Since DTV technology can provide the requisite bandwidth for delivery of rich media content as well as the capability for processing 3-D graphics, next generation systems that support the integration of broadcast content and interactive 3-D graphics can be proposed, provided that a viable mechanism for interfacing the broadcast content and the graphics components is available. Thus, it would be highly advantageous to provide such an interfacing mechanism to maximize the potential benefits afforded by the latest DTV technology.
Furthermore, it is appreciated that compatibility is essential in developing an interfacing mechanism. More specifically, numerous vendors will offer different appliances and applications for use in a DTV environment. As such, it would be desirable that these different appliances and applications can share a common interfacing mechanism such that they can work together seamlessly.
Additionally, it is appreciated that typical multimedia authoring tools are designed to operate within a self-contained environment and generally have a built-in runtime to verify the authored content. As such, these tools do not provide direct support for external, non-native interfacing mechanism. For example, lack of support for external broadcast triggering mechanism is prevalent in authoring tools for 3-D graphics platforms because such tools have traditionally not been considered applicable or useful in the context of television broadcasting. Thus, in an environment where broadcast content and interactive 3-D graphics are integrated, it would be desirable to provide a mechanism for authoring 3-D content in the context of broadcast triggering such that standard multimedia authoring tools can be used.
It is further realized that one particular type of interactive content that garners much interest is interactive music videos. Indeed, music videos have been a major element of the popular music industry since xe2x80x9cMTVxe2x80x9d came into existence in the early 1980s. More recently, as the xe2x80x9cconvergencexe2x80x9d of television viewing and home computing accelerates, the notion of interactive music videos is being enthusiastically explored. Therefore, once a viable mechanism for interfacing broadcast content and 3-D graphics components becomes available, it would be highly desirable to provide a method and system to deliver music videos as interactive content to viewers using DTV technology.
It would be advantageous to provide a mechanism for interfacing 3-D graphics content with broadcast video so as to deliver interactive media content. Furthermore, it would also be advantageous for such interface to utilize an existing standard which has been adopted in the industry in its implementation such that the interface is widely compatible with other applications. Additionally, it would be highly desirable to utilize such an interface to provide interactive music video capability.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a system and method for interfacing 3-D graphics content with broadcast video to generate interactive media content wherein the broadcaster and the viewer can share control of the media content. By so doing, embodiments of the present invention provide greatly enhanced viewer experience over existing broadcast video programming. Moreover, embodiments of the present invention can be efficiently implemented within a standard 3-D graphics environment that supports interactivity. As such, the present invention leverages upon a versatile technology platform for 3-D graphics and delivers a system and method that is widely compatible with other applications. Furthermore, the present invention provides a mechanism for authoring 3-D content in the context of broadcast triggering such that standard multimedia authoring tools can be used. Moreover, embodiments of the present invention can be utilized to provide interactive music capability. These and other advantages of the present invention not specifically mentioned above will become clear within discussions of the present invention presented herein.
More specifically, in one embodiment of the present invention, a computer implemented method for authoring and testing three-dimensional (3-D) content based on broadcast triggers using a standard authoring tool of a 3-D graphics platform is provided. In this embodiment, the method comprises the step of defining a timelist comprising video triggers, wherein each of the video triggers represents a time at which an event is to occur within a 3-D graphics scene generated using the 3-D graphics platform, and wherein the timelist is stored in a data file that is an input format supported by the 3-D graphics platform. The method also comprises the step of periodically generating a simulation tick representing a simulated video frame from a simulated media stream. The method further comprises the step of generating time data for the simulation tick, wherein the time data is associated with the simulated video frame. Moreover, in this embodiment, the method comprises the step of comparing the video triggers and the time data. Additionally, the method further comprises the step of effectuating a behavior change for an object in the 3-D graphics scene in response to a match between one of the video triggers and the time data such that the behavior change is synchronized with the simulated video frame in real-time. In a specific embodiment, the present invention includes the above steps and wherein the 3-D graphics platform comprises a Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) platform and the data file comprises a VRML scene description file. In one embodiment, the present invention includes the above and wherein the step of periodically generating a simulation tick is implemented using a TimeSensor node of the VRML platform.
Embodiments of the present invention include the above steps and wherein the timelist is stored in a first script node of the VRML platform, and the first script node supports event triggering by the simulated media stream. Additionally, embodiments of the present invention include the above and wherein the step of generating time data for the simulation tick comprises the step of generating the time data for the simulation tick wherein the time data represents absolute time in a native VRML data type; and also the step of converting the time data from the native VRML data type to a timecode quadruple.